The Sparrow's List
by Maiko Hime
Summary: Jack Sparrow has only one, true, love. The Black Pearl. The one weighing in second would of course be the sea. Then, maybe, freedom and of course rum. Those were his top four of a very short and simple list. Now thought that list would come to include one more thing, a daughter.
1. Prologue

The child was the spitting image of her father. No doubt the mother mused holding the wee babe in her arms. The child was only a few weeks old and already she was showing a half-cocked grin and had the dark eyes to match.

Jennifer sighed looking out the window at the early morning light upon the horizon and the scape of the sea that it gently kissed. The wee babe in her arm would not know her father and for that, she was a bit grateful but at the same time heartbroken. The child was conceived out of passion and debauchery, to be honest. Jennifer had had a fleeting moment of weakness and given into the most sinful pleasures of the flesh. This child was a result of that moment and here she was left disgraced and her honor sullied.

Jennifer would take responsibility for her actions, though, ill-conceived at the time, she did not regret them. Honestly, given the predicament she had found herself in consensual copulation had been the least of the worst of what might have happened. If it was one thing her father taught her it was not to have regrets especially if decisions were made in necessity. So here she was at her mother's tavern with her stepfather and baby in tow after being "lost" at sea for over a year.

That time at sea had not been entirely lost for she had found something. That something being a person in particular one in name of Captain Jack Sparrow.


	2. Chapter 1

Hello all! Thank you for reading my story thus far. I hope you have enjoyed it. Here is a new chapter. Please read and review!

Maiko

The Sparrow's List: Chapter One

~ 6 years Prior ~

The Antigua Ann, named for the Caribbean island she was built on, was not an aesthetically pleasing or fast ship. However, she got the job she was chartered for done and that was being a merchant's vessel. She had been built nearly 15 yeas ago and after running aground a reef had been salvaged and half way repaired then brought to port where she sat. She had been used only to sail around the island.

Usually, the Ann could be seen running errands and ferrying citizens from one side of the island to the other. Sometimes she would be used to pull ships across the harbor when they were in need of repair and their sails damaged from storm winds. Other then that her title changed hands and no one person owned her long. The Ann was of no use to anyone until Hayward Jensen purchased her.

Jensen was a small time merchant who was known for being smart and having a bit of tight fist about his money. He had lived modestly and spent naught what he had to for decades much to the complaints of his wife. It soon would pay off as he purchased the Antigua Ann in an auction. In this large, sullen, lady of wood, he saw an opportunity.

Mrs. Jensen stood on the dock with her daughter, Jennifer, not at all pleased with what lay before her. Her husband had dragged her down here, away from her chores and their daughter's lessons, proud as he could be. She half expected him to have actually accomplished something, finally. Her husband was a creature of habit and rarely got excited about much. Their twenty-year marriage had been for the most part dull. To see her husband up in spirits about something intrigued her. Instead of a grand surprise though it was an utter disgrace!

"What do you think?" Jensen asked grinning at his wife. He was a tall, thin, man who had long ago gone bald and did not bother with a wig. He wore spectacles due to having horrendous eyesight.

His wife, more rotund in appearance, looked at the ship in disbelief then back to him trying not to let her passive face reflect her anger. "It's a ship."

"Yes! I took part of our savings and invested in a ship. Finally one of our own Beth. Instead of renting and contracting out I can finally have my own." Jensen said ecstatic

"That's nice dear." Mrs. Jensen replied and his exuberance failed him a little seeing that she was indeed angry. Their whole marriage he knew she had wanted finer things and he had given her the bare minimum. He thought she would be happy about this. He was a bit confused by her reaction.

"Beth. It's a ship. We can make more money. I can maybe get us a larger house and maybe some nice new furniture. Yes! You can have the parlor you have always wanted!"

Mrs. Jensen narrowed her eyes at her husband the pale blue orbs cutting him. "We have plenty Mr. Jensen." she snapped. It was too little too late. She had grown comfortable in her lifestyle and did not want any gifts from her husband. Even if they were things she had longed for at one time. It was a confusing and shrewd way of getting revenge but one of the few tools she had.

"Dear.." He tried again but was cut off

"I've seen plenty Mr. Jensen. I have more important things to attend to at our home. There is a chicken to be prepared for dinner. Jennifer, come along."

Mrs. Jensen was now speaking to their fourteen-year-old daughter. Jennifer Jensen had her mother's pale blue eyes with a spray of freckles on a narrow nose but her father's tall and slender build. She was rather too slender for most male tastes and even with the help of a proper corset left much to be desired still. Jennifer favored her father more in demeanor reserved, quiet, but intelligent. The only child of the married couple her mother doted on her and was determined to make her a proper woman. Jennifer has been tutored in the basic forms of what was to be expected of a woman of her day but her mother also saw to the fact she learned to read and write. Though Jennifer didn't have a much a head for numbers she had an interested and gift for the written word. There was no musical or other whimsical talents and Jennifer was fine with that.

For most of her life, she had been a well-behaved child and followed her parent's commands, or rather her mother's. At the moment, though, for the first time, she found herself irritated with her mother and her attitude towards her father in this moment. It was true the Jensen Co. of shipping and merchants were small and their family as the lower middle class at best, but her father worked hard. They lived a comfortable and well-suited life for their class. It was exciting to see her father was able to take on a new venture that could not only increase their personal wealth but grow their reputation.

Her mother had always spoken of wishing to have finer things up until the last few years and held a mild disdain for her father because he refused to invest in them. Now here was an opportunity to change that and she was displaying almost malice towards him. Jennifer was confused and at best starting to get angry at her mother. She should be proud of her husband and should not be so openly ridiculing him in public, it was improper.

"I'd rather stay with father." the words left her mouth and surprised herself as well as her parents.

Jensen was a bit shocked to see his daughter, though sweet, but overly compliant show defiance to her mother. Mrs. Jensen looked at her daughter with contempt and two sets of matching pale blue eyes regarding one another for a few thick and tense moments. Mrs. Jensen finally cleared her throat ending the stare off. Jennifer was determined to stay with her father is seemed.

"Very well. Mr. Jensen does see you and your daughter come home in enough time to wash up for dinner. As for myself, I must go home in order, as I said, to prepare dinner." Mrs. Jensen sniffed.

"Yes, dear," Jensen replied softly and watched his wife turn with a swish of her skirts and head back towards the hired carriage to head back home.

Both father and daughter stood in a bit of uncomfortable silence before Jennifer cleared her throat breaking it. "Father, would you please give me a tour of your new ship. I would so like to see it."

Jensen smiled and she smiled back at him. Jensen, of course, loved his daughter and had always been present in her life but he was away most of the time with business and she rarely left her mother's side. Their relationship was a bit awkward, to say the least. Without Mrs. Jensen around he really didn't know how to interact with his daughter. He honestly felt like, for the first time, he was seeing his daughter. Jennifer rarely smiled and here she was smiling knowingly at him with a hidden emotion in her expression. He felt a bit giddy finally being able to have someone be proud of his new accomplishment. Or that's at least what he hoped what Jennifer was feeling, pride.

"Why of course Jennifer. Thank you for asking. Shall we?"

~5 years later~

That was the turning point in Jennifer's life. Her decisions in life up until that moment had not been her own. She soon realized this and though she loved her mother she wanted to be her own person. That day touring her father's ship and listening to him talk about all the new opportunities and possibilities in store she felt her heart finally breaking free and she came to this realization. Her father had been almost a stranger in her life up until this point. Hearing him speak she found he was passionate and ambitious a trait she had never seen and one she doubted her mother had either.

He talked about how this was still a new world they were living in and there were wild and uncharted lands for those who dared take the risk. The risk though was not without bounty and small business merchants willing to take a chance were to ones to tame it and benefit. The few hours they spent together, Jennifer and her father would shape her choices from then on. She spent the next couple of years with her mother stills and finished her lessons with her tutors. However, in that time she started to spend more time with her father.

Jensen's dream of soon growing the family business, once a barely known merchanting office that commissioned and rented vessels, soon became a well known and trustworthy name in St. Johns, Antigua. Still small compared to some other Maritimers the growth Jensen and Company had seen in just a couple of years was impressive. Jensen had always been smart and had a good mind for business but it wasn't until he took his daughter on as a clerk did everything come full circle.

Jennifer Jensen decided to join her father at Jensen Company and help grow it. Much to her mother's disdain and anger but Jennifer was an adult and one thing her mother could not deny is being involved with the company could offer good matches in marriage. Jennifer worked behind the scenes of course because in formal society a woman having any other place then besides the home and keeping house was still seen as improper by many.

Jennifer did take her mother's advice, after Mrs. Jensen had come to terms with her daughter's decision, to stay behind the scenes whilst in office. Only a few trusted employees knew her true role at the company, being a clerk and her father's assistant, but other than that she was just a daughter who loved spending time with her father. The guise was so subtle but still profitable. Jennifer knew the world was changing and secretly hoped one day she might marry a man whom would take over her father's business and be a bigger part of the company. Right now though she was content and happy.

The Antigua Ann, out of the now 5 vessels they owned, was still her favorite and she had for a time been trying to talk her father into letting her accompany him on one of his trips. Jensen was happy to have his daughter by his side most times but one place he was still not comfortable having her was on a merchant's vessel. Not only was it an old superstition to not have women on boats the unsavory characters that were the crew worried him. Not too mention open waters you always ran the risk of pirates. So far his company had been lucky and avoided any pirates in the past few years of having their own vessels. This being because they stuck close to smaller shipping paths to closer islands and avoiding the bigger waters.

Jensen knew though that more profit was to be had by broadening his shipping lanes and making longer trips farther away. The Ann Antigua so far was the only ship that could handle that trip. His other vessels were too small and did not have the hulls to hold large amounts of merchandise so using them would not be profitable and a waste. Jennifer was actually the one pushing for him to push to the open waters and visit the islands farther away. To his surprise, his daughter had a mind for business and she was more like him than he had originally thought. Jennifer also had a gift for charting and mapping his trips something she had picked up on her own. All of it was all technical and on paper only, for she had never been in open waters, but she listened to the sailors he employed.

Jennifer wouldn't deny she used a few her feminine wiles to use the sailors for information. She couldn't very well go out into the oceans and sea the currents and the winds, nor experience the routes. She relied on their words and drew up her own conclusions and relied on her father's resources to maps and charts and captain's journals. Using her literary talents she taught herself how to map and chart. It was really a little side hobby she endeavored in knowing really that her charts and routes were no good without first-hand experience. Jennifer hid them from her father at first until one day he found them. Amused at his daughter he made a wager with her that she plot out and plan a course and if she did well he'd invest in her talent a bit more.

Jennifer took Jensen up on his offer and to his surprise the trip she personally charted and mapped was successful. Being a man of his word he did invest in her abilities going as far as to hire a retired captain to tutor her. The man he approached, a retired captain who'd lost his arm, at first had been against it, because after all, she was a woman, but after meeting her Mr. Thomas Edwards agreed to tutor her. Jennifer found another ally and friend in the world of ships and merchants besides her father she would become close to Mr. Edwards.

Jennifer was happy in her own little world in her father's office. She started having suitors approach her more often, as her father's business became more successful, and found herself invited to dances. Most of them were foot soldiers in their majesties military but not without their own merit. Jennifer had to be realistic when it came to the facts of being a woman and her future. Though she dreamed of being a businesswoman the odds were against her. That didn't mean she couldn't pursue other options marriage, a house of her own, and children were not off the plate either.

She felt a bit pulled between both ideas either to shirk courting and devote herself to business, or dally in it on the side while looking for a smart match. Either way, one or the other, she may have to sacrifice her happiness. For the time being, she accepted invitations to dances, made a few female friends, and continued working with her father and Mr. Edwards. For the moment at least she was happy.

"Jensen this is a waste of time," Edwards argued the one-armed former captain as he sat in his patron's office.

"Mr. Edwards I hardly see how. Jennifer shows a lot of promise." Jensen said folding his hands and setting them on his desk. He was proud of his daughter and was surprised to hear the man, Edwards, who adored her, speak against her favor.

They were in his office one afternoon discussing Jennifer together. Mr. Edwards was fond of the young woman but at the same time was being realistic. Her lessons were a waste of time and money and honestly as a young woman, now going on nineteen, she should be spending her time doing other things.

"Don't let your affections fool you, Jensen. I know the girl has talent but it is a waste of my time and yours to keep humoring this absurd idea." Edwards snapped he had lately starting to feel guiltier and guiltier each time he saw the young woman. She had blossomed in the last few years into a pretty young lady. Yet here she was, wasting her time on him, an old sea dog, and her father trapped in an office. She should be out with friends, going to dances, tea parties, courting, etc. Jennifer should be doing what young women of her age were supposed to do and felt like he was denying her this by entertaining this ludicrous venture of hers and her father's.

Jensen sighed and knew his words were true. Jennifer was a delight to have around and he knew that women had gained more independence these days but the reality of it was, what she was doing was improper for a young lady of her age. Jennifer had been the first person to believe in him and his ideas to grow his company. She was smart and ambitious and if she had been his son she would have been groomed to take over one day. The fact of the matter was she was not his son but his daughter and maybe Mr. Edwards was right. He realized this as the seriousness of the matter became less of a jest and more of a legitimate concern.

"Maybe you are right Edwards." Jensen sighed acknowledging the aged captain.

"I know you care for the girl and she's as smart as a whip. If she had been a lad you would have no worries." Edwards said again seeming to read his mind.

A soft rapping at the door broke up their conversation. Jennifer entered smiling. Her auburn hair in a simple chignon, wearing an apron, and a simple dress. She carried a basket with lunch for her father and Mr. Edwards. Jensen had let the time slip by today. It was near time for her come, she stayed at home with her mother most mornings, and spent her time at the office in the afternoons. She was dressed for work and for her time spent with Mr. Edwards.

"Sorry to interrupt father, Mr. Edwards, I brought lunch. I didn't want it to get cold. If you let me set it down I'll leave you two alone to finish." Jennifer said

Edwards looked at Jensen pointedly and he sighed nodding before turning to Jennifer. "Actually my dear, we would like you to join us. This meeting is about you actually."

Jennifer's smile turned to a look of curiosity. Mr. Edwards stood and pulled out an additional seat for her as she sat down next to him and faced her father. "Is everything alright?" Jennifer asked worried suddenly

"Yes, and no my dear," Jensen said stumbling over his words and looking more uncomfortable by the moment. Edwards respected Jensen but had little patience for his lack of forwardness.

Jennifer looked at him confused and Edwards grew more impatient by the second. A long held trade of a sailor, you can't sit still or dally too long, especially when there was work to be done or something to be said. You did or said what you had to and be done with. Damn the consequences.

"What your father wants to say to you lass is, that I cannot teach you any longer." Mr. Edwards said gently but with a firm edge.

Blue eyes looked at him wide and shocked. "Are you well Mr. Edwards? Did something happen?"

Immediately Jennifer's first thought was the man was ill. He had lost him an arm and she was sure it had to bother or hurt him at times. Not too mention he was an older gentleman. Worry dug a hole in her stomach quickly as she looked at the old sea captain whom she considered a close friend and revered teacher.

"No, lass. I'm well enough. Jensen." Mr. Edwards prompted her father irritated the gentleman was having such an issue addressing this with his own daughter of all people. He shouldn't even be here involved in this conversation in the first place, one that should be between a father and his child. However, he knew Jensen would never have the nerve to do so.

"Jennifer as much as I have loved having you here at the office and Mr. Edwards has enjoyed teaching you, I believe it is time for you to pursue other things, more suitable for a woman of your age." Mr. Jensen said

Jennifer's heart dropped at her father's words even though she knew this conversation was going to happen one day. It still hurt immensely to hear it, though. Mr. Edwards had once told her the one annoying trait about women was their emotional instability and the fact they cried at the drop of a hat. Tears threatened to spill but she held them back as much as possible. Clenching her hands tightly in her lap and setting her jaw firm she trembled in the intensity of keeping her emotions at bay.

Mr. Edwards saw this and reached over and patted her clenched hands gently with his battered and weathered palm. "Lass, you have my respect and I adore ya, but a fair thing like you needs to be out finding herself a husband and having fun with more feminine things. Not hanging around old sea dogs and paper pushing merchants."

Jennifer let out a heavy and shaky breath before looking at Mr. Edwards and then her father. "I know this. All of it. I've had these thoughts myself for awhile. You're both right."

Both men breathed a sigh of relief neither wanting to deal with a hysterical female. "It's not that I don't want you here Jennifer, I enjoy it immensely, but I do not want to hold you back either. You are of marrying age and have had several nice young men interested in you. I think it's time we both were honest with ourselves my dear."

Jennifer smiled at him she knew how much her father despised confrontation. He had been so supportive and such a good father to her in these last few years. Allowing her to do what she had for so long it really was a gift. He was just trying to keep her interests in mind. As was Mr. Edwards.

"I know, father," Jennifer said gently

"I'm glad yer so undestandin lass. You are welcome to visit me anytime and I'll regale you with my old tales." Mr. Edwards said grinning and causing her to chuckle.

"Of course," Jennifer said smiling

"Well then, Jensen, . I need to be getting on." Mr. Edwards said clearing his throat and standing. He felt Jensen could handle the situation from here.

"Of course Edwards, thank you."

Jennifer didn't bid him goodbye as he left because she was too intently focused on her father. There was still something she wanted to discuss with him.

"I appreciate you being so understanding my dear," Jensen said smiling at her.

Jennifer smiled back, "Of course father, you and Mr. Edwards only are worried about me. I do have a request father."

"Of course. Whatever it is my dear I will see to."

"I want to sail on Ann's voyage to St. Thomas. The one you planned to happen in a year's time."

Once again Jennifer had surprised her father. He sat a moment silent and grasped a quill in his hands twiddling the feather in between his fingers.

"Jennifer, I cannot, honestly, say that is a good idea." Her father said looking back to her

"Father, please. It's all I want. It's just a few days. If you let me go I will start taking my courting and my future more seriously. I will do what you want me too, but, please let me have this first." Jennifer pleaded in a tone Jensen had never heard before.

His daughter's blue eyes were narrowed and she spoke with a passion unfamiliar to him. Jensen sighed hard leaning back in his chair and the wood creaked beneath him as his weight shifted.

"Your mother is absolutely going to have my head, but alright," Jensen said

Jennifer grinned standing and coming over to her father. Though their family wasn't overly affectionate she knelt and hugged him about the shoulders before kissing his forehead. "Thank you, father. Thank you for everything you have done for me the past few years."

Jensen cleared his throat awkwardly patting her forearm and she smiled removing her arms. He felt a bit out of place by such an emotional display but he handled it well. Jennifer tried to hide her smile at her father's discomfort but couldn't stop her smile.

"Right now. This voyage is still in its drafting stages. There is much to be done beforehand. I'd say at least a year's worth of planning. Can you wait that long Jennifer?" Jensen asked his daughter even though he had given his word to her already he hoped the time of preparation for the trip might be a last minute deterrence.

"Yes, father, without a doubt."

Jensen sighed heavily once more. Not a deterrence at all but only seemed to make her more determined to go. To think of his lovely daughter on a boat in the middle of the ocean with sailors and other unsavory characters made his stomach lurch. However, you had to admire her pluck.


End file.
